“It’s been a great experience and I’ve met a lot of great people,” Mark Smith said. “But it’s extremely difficult for a political unknown to take on a 20-year political machine.”

Patterson will face Democrat Mark Hawkins in the November general election.

Two school board races were also decided Tuesday.

School Board District 5 may have been the most contentious, because Jane Goodwin, the candidate the teachers union backed, was the recipient of e-mails her opponent, Kathy James, called improper.

A high-ranking school district official copied Goodwin on an e-mail about a meeting with another school board candidate and the information he requested. Goodwin was not a school employee, and James was not sent the same information.

Goodwin won the election, receiving 52% of the vote. James got 48%.

Other district employees sent e-mails from their work computers urging members to vote for Goodwin and District 1 candidate Barry Woolf.

Woolf was facing Dr. Joseph Neunder and incumbent Dr. Carol Todd, who cruised to an easy victory.
Todd got 62%. Neunder at 22% and Woolf received the fewest votes at 16%.

“I think the voters looked at my record,” Todd said.

Maryann Boehm defeated Tracy Lee in the race for county judge, Group 3.

Boehm received 62% of the vote to 38% for Lee, who was dogged by his domestic-violence arrest last year. Lee initially dropped out of the election, but after his wife dropped the charges, he re-entered the race.

Five Republicans were vying for two Charter Review Board seats.

In District 2, Steven Fields defeated Robert Copeland 56% to 44%.

Fields faces Democrat Diana Harrington in the general election.

The District 3 race will face a mandatory recount because the vote was so close.

Adam Miller received 38.7%, and Kathy Bolam received 38.4%. They were separated by less than 200 votes.

The third candidate in that race, Dawn Moore, got 22.9% of the vote.

Just one Hospital Board seat was to be decided in the primary. Republican Darryl Henry beat Levko Klos 64%% to 36% for Southern Seat 1.

To download an election totals box for Sarasota and Manatee County races, click here.

To download a PDF of how Sarasota and Manatee counties voted in the state and federal races, click here.